New FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Names Staffers

New Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai unveiled his new staff Monday, only hours after being sworn in.

Chief of staff will be Matthew Berry, former FCC general counsel, and most recently a partner at Patton Boggs in D.C.

Pai and Berry were both deputy general counsels at the FCC under then-chairman Kevin Martin, who is also a partner at Patton Boggs (http://www.pattonboggs.com/kmartin/) and has worked with Berry there.

Berry was named general counsel in January 2008, and Pai, then associate general counsel,  was named to succeed him as deputy general counsel.

Berry's resume also includes stints at the Department of Justice and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Gene Fullano will be acting legal adviser. She is being detailed from the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, where she has been associate bureau chief. Her boss, Admiral Jamie Barnett, who exited the commission at the end of April.

Lori Alexiou will serve as Pai's confidential assistant. She comes from the FCC's litigation division in the office of general counsel and is former confidential assistant to both Meredith Attwell Baker, who Pai succeeded in the Republican seat, and Martin.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.